Cotton-picker



L. 0. STUKENBOR G. COTTON PICKER. APPLICATION FILED. MAY I0. i917- Patented Mar. 2, 1920.

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L. C. STUKENBORG.

conow PICKER.

APPLICATION FILED MAYIO. 1917. 1,332,580.

PatentedMar. 2,1920

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT clar on.

LOUIS G. STUKENBORG, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO FREDERICK W. STUKENBORG, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

COTTON-PICKER.

Application filed May 10,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS (I. STUKEN- BORG, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cotton- Pickers; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in cotton pickers and is herein shown as applied to that type of cotton picker illustrated in United States Letters Patent No. 1,264,575, and granted April 30, 1918, having a movable or dirigible picker head adapted to be presented directly to the cotton .bolls. The picker head shown in said patent has been chosen herein for illustration of my improvements thereto and, further, the arrangement of the traveling frame also closely follows the arrangement shown in said prior application; but it will be understood that these details, in themselves, may be varied.

Among the objects of the present invention is to provide a novel means of operating the mechanism at the picker head. In the machine shown in my aforesaid application, the picker head mechanism isoperated' from a motor on the traveling frame through the medium of a flexible shaft that is driven by said motor and is carried along the flexible tube of the conveyor and is operatively connected at its outer end to the picker head mechanism. This arrangement is a practical arrangement when applied to a conveyer tube of a given limited length. When attempt is made, however, to substantially increase the length of conveyor tube and therefore the range of the machine, it is found that the weight of the flexible shaft becomes so great as to render the handlingof the conveyer tube and shaft inconvenient and somewhat cumbersome.

In order to avoid this disadvantage in the use of machines having long. conveyer tubes designed for picking a number of rows of cotton from a single position of the machine, I propose to apply an individual motor to the picker head and to supply it with power through some suitable connections- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar.2, 1920. 1917. Serial No. 167,630.

which do not involve objectionable weight. Such motor may be an air driven motor which may be operated by a moving column of air set in motion by the fan blower that operates the conveyer, or the motor may be an electric motor operated by power derived from a dynamo on the frame and driven by the engine, a storage battery carried by the frame, or a combination of a dynamo and the storage battery. An electric motor is herein shown.

A furthei object of the invention is to increase the capacity of the machine by equipping the cotton handling fan blower with a plurality of picker heads connected to the single blower by a plurality of conveyer tubes; and in this connection the blower may be connected to the motor which drives it through means-by which the speed of rotation of the blower may be varied so as to vary the amount of air handled to correspond to the number of picker heads in use at a given time.

Other objects of the invention are to improve and simplify cotton picking machines and the invention consists in the combination and arrangement of the parts shown in the drawings and described in the specification, and is pointed out in the appended claims.

ln'the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side view of a cotton picker machine embodyin my invention,

Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the picker head.

Fig. l is alongitudinal section thereof in a plane parallel to the plane of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a bottom plan view of the picker head, showing a slightlv different method of driving the picker head mechanism from the motor.

As shown in the drawings. and referring more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, the frame 10 is supported on wheels 11 mounted on axles 12 fixed in anv suitable manner to the rear end of the machine frame. The front of the frame is supported by one or more legs 1-1 at the forward narrow'end of the frame. The frame is adapted to be wheeled about from p ace to place through the medium of hand bars 15 at the front of the frame. Said frame comprises suitable bars connected together as a skeleton, between I a power motor 20,

' take-off device.

which may be stretched wire netting, in the j manner set forth-in my priorpatent. 'A' receiving receptacle 17 18 supported on the rear end of the frame to receive the cotton in the same manner as shown in my prior patent, being supported on the frame through the medium of hooks l8.

he frame carries in an suitable manner such as a gas engine, which motor is connected toand drives a blower 21 supported on the frame. The

driving connections between the motor and blower consists of a belt that is trained over pulleys 23, 24 on the motor and blower shafts respectively. Said pulleys are herein shown as cone pulleys to enable the speed of rotation of the blower to be varied for a purpose hereinafter to be described. It may be stated however that other speed regulating means for the blower may be employed.

26 designates a dynamo which is supported on the machine frame, and said dynamo is driven by a belt 27 from a pulley 28 on the power shaft of the motor 20 near the balance wheel of the latter. Said belt is trained also over a pulley 29 connected to the armature shaft of the dynamo.

.The picker head 30 is equipped with oppositely rotating picker brushes 31, 31, which are mounted on shafts 3'2, 32 supported in the side walls of the picker head, said brushes being so arranged'that the bristles 34 thereof travel rearwardly at the proximate sides of the brushes, and are out of line with respect to each other so that the rows of bristles of one brush enter the spaces between adjoining rows of the other brush in the manner of meshing gears, as set forth in my aforesaid patent.

35 designates. as a whole, a take-off device located in rear of said brushes, said takeoff device being of the disappearing spur type.

illustrated in my aforesaid patent. It consists of a series of radial pins 36 that are fixed to and rotate with a sleeve 37 that is mounted on a fixed shaft 38 which is anchored at one end to a bearing 39 in the picker head wall, and a shell 40 which surrounds said sleeve 37 and is apertured for the pins 36 to pass therethrough. Said shell has an end bearing stud 41 that is mounted in a suitable ,bearing 42 in the said casing. wall remote from the bearing 39, and the shell is also recessed to constitute a hearing for one end of the fixed shaft 38. The axes of the shaft 38 and of the bearing stud 41 are eccentric so that-as the take-off device rotates the spurs are alternately projected from and through the perforations therein, whereby cotton dislodged from the picker brushes by said spurs is stripped from the spurs and does not tend to wind about and clog the designed retreated toward the shell 40,

is provided with a beveled gear 43 that meshes with a beveled gear 44 which is carried by a shaft 45 that is mounted in the side walls of the picker frame and extends at a right angle to the axis of rotation of the take-ofi' device. The said shaft 45 isgeared to and drives the shafts 32 of the picker brushes through 'the'medium of a spur gear 47 which is fixed to one end of the shaft 45 and meshes with a spur gear 48 on one of the brush shafts, a similar spur gear 49 on the other brush shaft.

The mechanism' described, and which is substantially like that shown in my prior patent, is driven by an electric motor 50 which is mounted in any suitable manner in or on the picker head frame or casing. Said motor may be of any suitable type and is so as to occupy a limited space. .As herein shown it is supported on the bottom wall of the picker head casing. It may be connected to the picker mechanism to operate the latter in any suitable or preferred manner. Two modes of operatively connecting the motor to said mechanism is The bearing stud 41 of the take-off device said gear 48 meshing with herein shown. One is shown in Figs. 3 and shaft 54 is mounted in suitable bearings 55,

55 formed on. the casing wall and is provided at its end remote from the motor with a worm 56-wh1ch meshes wlth a worm wheel 57 that is fixed'to the shaft 45 before referred to.

pitch thereof will be so proportioned and The ratios of'the gears and'the arranged as to give the proper speed 'to the brushes. In practice I have found that. the

' rotating brushes produce good results when operating at a speed of from s x hundred to one thousand revolutions per minute. This speed may be varied, on the condition of the cotton and the length thereof.

As shown in Fig. provided with a sprocket wheel 60 and the shaft 45 is provided with a larger sprocket wheel 61, and about said sprocket wheels is trained a sprocket chain 62. thus driving the shaft 45 more directly from the motel.

The brushes of'the arnmture of said motor are connected by wires 63, 64 to the'dynamo in the usual manner, and said wires may be trained along and carried by the conveyer or tube'in the manner shown in Figs. 1 and 2. A suitable controlling switch 64 is in- 3 and 4 the same is made as fol;

depending somewhat 5 the armature shaft is messes 8 cluded in each motor circuit, preferably near the head, by which the operation of the picker head mechanism is controlled.

The eduction pipe 65 of the blower extends into the receiving receptacle 17 and the induction pipe 66 thereof extends forwardly from the blower or suction device.

Said induction pipe may be connected. to a single picker head through a flexible conveyer tube 68, as shown in my said prior patent. In larger machines, however, ll may attach two or more tubes 68 (each equipped with a picker head) to a single blower. In this instance the induction pipe 66 of the blower will be made correspondingly larger, as shown in Fig. 2, and will be provided with one or more branches connected to one or more additional conveyer tubes, each having a picker head 30, and each head will be equipped with its independent motor. As herein shown, the induction pipe of the suction device is provided with three of such branches, anclwvith this arrangement the machine may be adapted to serve three rows of cotton with conveyer tubes of moderate lengths or a larger number of rows of cotton with conveyer tubes of longer lengths. All of said motors will be supplied with current from a single generator.

When the machine is equipped with a number of heads it will be necessary to operate the suction device .at speeds depending upon the number of heads in use at any given time. lVhen all of the heads are in use the suction device will be run at the maximum speed to direct air in ample volume through all of the heads and through the conveyer tubes. When one or a greater number of heads are not operated the suction device will be run at a lower speed. The cone pulley drive between the motor and the suction device takes care of this condition as may any other suitable form of change speed device.

It will be observed that the flexible conveyer tube or tubes 68 are free to fiex in all directions and without restraint, so that the head or heads may be freely directed forwardly or to either side of the machine and toward the rear of the machine. It will be furthermore observed that by rea son of the fact that the motor or motors of the heads are connected to the generator through wires having negligible weight, the conveyer tube or tubes may be considerably longer, thus giving the machine a much wider range than in constructions where power is transmitted from a motor on the frame to the head or heads through a transmission shaft or shafts. Thus it becomes 2. A cotton picker comprising a head, vacuum tube connected to and receiving cot ton therefrom, rotative brush means in said head adapted for contact with the cotton bolls, a takeoff device in contact.with and geared to said brush means, and a motor mounted on said head and geared to and driving said brush means and said take-off 7 device. 7

3. A. cotton picker comprising a head, a vacuum tube connected to and receiving cotton therefrom, rotative brush means at said head adapted for contact with the cotton bolls. a take-off device comprising a rotative perforated shell, a series of picker fingers rotative on an axis eccentric to the axis of rotation of the shell and extensible through the perforation of said shell for contact with the brush means, and a motor mounted on said head and geared to and driving said head and said take-off device.

4-. A cotton picker comprising a head, interacting, rotative picker brushes thereat, gears connecting said brushes, a rotative selfclearing take-off device in contact with and geared to said brushes, and a motormounted on said head and geared to and driving said brushes and said take-off device.

A cotton picker comprising a head, interacting, rotative picker brushes thereat, gears connecting said brushes, a rotative self clearing take-off device in' contact with and geared to said brushes, and a motor mounted on said head and geared to said take-off device and therethrough to said brushes.

In testimony whereof I claim the foregoing as my invention, I hereunto append my signature in the presence of two witnesses at ghicago, Illinois, this 5th day of May, 191

LOUIS O. STUKENBORG.

Witnesses:

W. L. HALL, A. E. WALBRIDGE. 

